Yet Another Use For Duct Tape

Curing warts!!! Oh my goodness I had no idea.

My daughter has a big one on her foot. At first I thought it was a blister... I even tried to lance it (poor kid) with the aid of some hydrogen peroxide and a very clean needle, but in spite of the fact that it appeared to have a symmetrical fluid filled centre, nothing drained. Confused and annoyed, I took her to our Doc, who told me that duct tape would more than likely do the trick.

Reeeally??? Ohhhhkay.

Then a friend and fellow Mom said "oh yeah, uh huh" when I mentioned it to her, like it was something that everyone and anyone had heard of. In my defense my husband was just as out of the loop as I was.

The nice thing, is that after the attempted lancing episode, Alyssa was thrilled with the tape idea. She even started talking about drawing pictures on it, and cutting it into fun shapes. (Apparently she's never tried to cut duct tape). Still, the creative art instructor child was far preferable to the screaming thrashing kicking one, so I tried for a heart shape wart cover. No such luck - the tape won as the scissors struggled, so she ended up with the basic stock rectangle model.

The net result is that she's tucked into bed, sound asleep, with the tape on her foot. She has swimming lessons tomorrow so we'll see how that goes. Hopefully duct tape sticks to child heels as well as it does to scissor blades...

What??? Siblings Don't Fight!!!

OK, so.... they're in the playhouse in the back yard. Sun streaming through the windows, snacks on the fold out table, me watching from the window. All is well until... well, they had an issue with whose turn it was to watch the TV.

Now before you start thinking that I'm an overindulging parent who has sprung for a portable TV for the plastic playhouse of my five and three year old, let me just stress that this is a PRETEND TV. As in, it is the shape of a TV, complete with buttons to change pretend channels, molded into one of the inside walls of the playhouse.

And yes, they are seriously fighting over it. Let me reiterate - there's NOTHING on the pretend screen.

"THOMAS!!! I wan THOMAS!!"

"NO, Joseph!!! It's time for Yo Gabba Gabba!!!"

"THOOOOMMMMASSSSS!!!!!!"

You get the picture. (I just wished I could have changed the channel).

All I can say, is that yet again, they're lucky to be so cute....

Pro-D Day and No Play Date!

My kids live a highly scheduled and structured life. My daughter is just one of those kids who thrives on doing STUFF, and her brother happily tags along.

Alyssa is a November baby, and I started her in Kindergarten when she was still four. She's in French Immersion, which she loves. in September '07, I fought the urge to enroll her in other activities other than school so that I wouldn't overwhelm her with her new 5 day a week schedule. However after a couple of weeks of "Mommy, why don't we have school every day? What are we going to do on Saturday and Sunday?" my credit card magically rose up out of my wallet and my fingers, seemingly possessed with minds of their own, were dialing the phone to the local parks and rec enrollment office.

So now, thank goodness, we still have swimming tomorrow even though there's no school. Yay!!!! (phew). Plus, I do get to sleep in a bit. I can`t lose sight of that ;-)

15 Heathly Loose Tooth Foods

OK here are some things I've been trying... This is one of those lists that's endless, so I know as soon as I publish this I'll think of ten more things!! LOL

1) Sliced banana (or any sliced fruit, for that matter)
2) Sliced avocado
3) Soup
4) Yogurt
5) Porridge
6) Whole grain pancakes
7) Cheese
8) Eggs
9) Peanut butter
10) Fruit smoothies
11) Cooked mashed veggies
12) Pasta
13) Rice pudding
14) Homemade pudding (made with real milk and reduced sugar)
15) Apple sauce

Kids and Asthma

Thank you, Dr. Rhonda Low, for pointing out that too clean isn't always better. I'm referring to her story about rising asthma rates in kids, and how under utilized immune systems (created from over clean environments) can overreact to benign things such as dust and pests.

Ah ha! Finally. My not vacuuming daily has been vindicated. OK so I'm a bit of a germaphobe with the kitchen counters and the toilets, but the carpets are lucky if they see the vacuum cleaner more than 2 or 3 times per week. Wahoo!!! Hey maybe I should do less laundry too. Hmmm. This theory definitely has potential. Hey, it's good for the kids, right?